YAIAA teams learn their new PIAA classes

Central York's Nik Strine is wrapped up by West York's Ryan Narber during the teams' annual opening-night rivalry game. The PIAA will expand football from four to six classes next season, moving Central to 6A and West York to 4A. Panthers coach Brad Livingston said that change could threaten the Central-West York rivalry.(Photo: File, GameTimePA.com)Buy Photo

After the PIAA voted to expand its classification system for 11 high school sports a few months ago, many coaches were eager to see where their schools would fall for the 2016-2017 season.

On Monday, the highly anticipated PIAA enrollment list was released and presented a few surprises, particularly in football, which will grow from four classes to six.

The Central York, Red Lion, Dallastown and York County Tech football teams bumped up from 4A to 6A. William Penn, New Oxford, South Western, Dover, Spring Grove and Northeastern will represent the YAIAA in 5A.

Central York head coach Brad Livingston, who was in favor of reclassification, said he's worried about playoff qualifications and potentially losing rivalries.

"For example, we have a good rivalry with West York, but now they are two classifications down in 4A," Livingston said. "That could be a problem because in Division I there are numerous 5A schools we must play, too."

Red Lion — which was expected to be on the fence between 6A and 5A — is one of the smallest schools among 6A competition, which brings challenges, head coach Jesse Shay said.

"It will present a huge challenge trying to compete with schools like Cumberland Valley when we have over 400 fewer male students than them," he said. "The lack of 6A schools in (YAIAA) Division I may prove to be an obstacle for the playoffs. As always, we'll worry about what we can control and continue to try to move the program forward."

There were fewer surprises in the lower classes for football.

The majority of Division II — Gettysburg, Susquehannock, West York, Kennard-Dale and York Suburban — will compete in 4A, while Eastern York, Littlestown, Bermudian Springs and Biglerville will be in 3A.

"I wasn't (surprised), I think all of the schools in Division II are 4A now," York Suburban head coach Andy Loucks said. "The non-league games could be more difficult to schedule."

Loucks added that the new classes don't affect the Trojans as much as others, unless the playoff system changes. Biglerville head coach Alex Ramos wasn't surprised with the Canners' move to 3A, he said.

"I hoped we'd be in 2A," he said. "But unfortunately (that's) not the case."

Delone Catholic and York Catholic move up to join Hanover in 2A, and the lone YAIAA team in 1A will be Fairfield.

The other sports that will be shuffled to accommodate next year's expansion are boys' and girls' basketball (moving to 6 classes), baseball (6), softball (6), boys' and girls' soccer (4), girls' volleyball (4), field hockey (3), and boys' and girls' lacrosse (2).

Here's a look at where the local teams landed.

Boys' basketball

This season: Four classes. Next season: Six classes

6A: Central York, Dallastown, Red Lion, York County Tech

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William Penn's Montrel Morgan looks to pass during the District 3 Class AAAA championship game in February. The Bearcats are two-time defending district AAAA champions, but they learned Monday they'll move to Class 5A in 2016-17 when the PIAA expands from four to six classifications.(Photo: File, GameTimePA.com)

Notes: Three YAIAA schools will compete in the largest classification. All of YAIAA Division III will compete in the newly-formed Class 1A, which is especially beneficial to nine-time defending division champion Bermudian Springs. The Eagles struggled to win games in District 3 AA , but now get away from larger schools such as the two they lost two in this year's district tournament, Twin Valley and Manheim Central.